TapTechNews July 15th news, according to Taiwan media Commercial Times, TSMC's 2nm process will conduct trial production this week, and Apple will secure the first batch of production capacity.
The equipment for testing, production and components of TSMC's 2nm process chips has entered the factory and been installed in the early second quarter. This week, trial production of the 2nm process will be carried out in the newly-built wafer factory in宝山, Hsinchu, and it is planned to enter mass production in 2025, and it is rumored that it is expected to be carried by the iPhone 17 series.
TapTechNews note: The iPhone 15Pro is equipped with the A17Pro chip manufactured using TSMC's 3nm process (N3B); the M4 iPadPro uses the next-generation 3nm technology (N3E). It is reported that the performance of TSMC's 2nm will be 10-15% higher than that of 3nm, and the power consumption can be reduced by up to 30% .
In addition, Apple's M5 chip is planned to follow up with SoIC (System-on-a-Chip) packaging and enter mass production in 2025. The SoIC technology is to stack multiple chips with different functions vertically to form a compact three-dimensional structure.
Semiconductor industry insiders said that as the SoC (System-on-a-Chip) becomes larger and larger, in the future, only one chip may be placed on a 12-inch wafer, which is a great challenge for the yield and production capacity of wafer foundries. Therefore, TSMC accelerates the research and development of SoIC, hoping to meet the requirements of the number of transistors required by the chip through the three-dimensional stacked chip technology.
Supply chain disclosed that compared to AI chips, the SoIC production of Apple chips is relatively easy, TSMC's current monthly SoIC production capacity is about 4,000 wafers, and it will be at least doubled next year.